Dread Pirate Roberts found guilty on all counts!

[lucidity]

Hi Siblings,

Dread Pirate Roberts (Ross Ulbricht) allegedly set up Silk Road (I)
to facilitate the purchase of illegal drugs and services.
A jury has found him guilty on all counts.
29 year old Ulbricht could be facing life imprisonment.
Sentencing will be delayed until May.
The defence team plan to appeal.

http://rt.com/usa/229403-silk-road-guilty-verdict/

Avalonians... your opinions please. :-)

be happy

lucidity :-)

[jerry]

Liberty and Justice died quite awhile ago. The hypocrisy of such cases and there are many speaks volumes and proves the game is fixed

[A Voice from the Mountains]

I don't know much about this Silk Road but if it's anything like Pirate Bay then I would have to support it...

[kaon]

I don't know much about this Silk Road but if it's anything like Pirate Bay then I would have to support it...

It was much more then that. One could purchase drugs, weapons, hit men, child pornography and just about everything else illegal that you could think of. They were not just hosting movies and copyrighted material like Pirate Bay.

[Flash]

I don't know much about this Silk Road but if it's anything like Pirate Bay then I would have to support it...

It was much more then that. One could purchase drugs, weapons, hit men, child pornography and just about everything else illegal that you could think of. They were not just hosting movies and copyrighted material like Pirate Bay.

It is not because it is illegal that it should be supported by the conspiracists. Losing one's human compass because we support fringe things does not make sense.

This guy shiuld be stopped as much as any other psychopath. As others of his kind , he was in it for money and power, the damages he caused being irrelevant to him.

Now that one is nailed, lets get on the others who are much better sheltered.

[Anchor]

The Jury convicted based on the evidence. I don't see what other choice they had quite frankly.

Initially, I was concerned that this was going to be another Aaron Schwartz prosecution overkill, so I actually took the time to read some of the court transcripts. The evidence that Ross Ulbricht was DPR and was in current control of Silk Road at the time of his arrest was overwhelming.

On Day 6 the evidence included things that indicated that he was quite happy to have someone killed for a fee. No evidence was presented that this hit occurred - and it wasn't one of the charges against him in this case. Personally I feel it likely that the on-line hit man and the blackmailer were the same person scamming him out of yet more money - but it does appear that he was quite prepared to pay for someone's death!

Maybe it was an elaborate set up and he was the fall guy for someone else, but there was nothing presented in court by the defence that could prove that.

[lucidity]

I don't know much about this Silk Road but if it's anything like Pirate Bay then I would have to support it...

It was much more then that. One could purchase drugs, weapons, hit men, child pornography and just about everything else illegal that you could think of. They were not just hosting movies and copyrighted material like Pirate Bay.



In the early days of Silk Road they had a policy of "anything goes".
Later this was changed.
First there was a ban on child pornography.
Then there was a ban on weapons.
There was also a ban on revealing the identity of any persons
(on or off the market: vendors, buyers, policemen etc)

It started off as 'no-rules' and evolved to 'some-rules'.

There's an article floating around on the internet about the
'evolution' of Silk Road from hard to soft libertarian positions.
(Alas, i can't find the link)

lucidity :-)

[lucidity]

Now that one is nailed, lets get on the others who are much better sheltered.

The production and distribution of cocaine is done with the assistance and management
of the CIA. Stories of the CIA running coke into the USA are legion.

Before the USA invaded Afghanistan the Taliban had virtually eliminated poppy
cultivation and hence heroin production.
After the Afghanistan invasion, poppy fields started popping up all over the country.
Morphine/heroin production levels are at historic highs (under USA control).

There are powerful people/agencies in the USA who are profiting from
the drug trade. They're organising the production and distribution of these
drugs into North America and Europe on an epic scale.
They go about their business with impunity.

Street dealers and online dealers like Ross Ulbricht are simply the low
level 'retail' fall guys. While cocaine and heroin are illegal profits remain
sky-high (no pun intended) .. .. but the cost of this illegality is that
people on the ground, the retailers, get caught and sent to jail.

When drugs are legalised prices fall dramatically and with them
fall profits. This is currently being demonstrated in the case of
cannabis. Production levels rise, quality increases, prices fall.
This trend will continue... soon you'll be able to buy cannabis cigarettes
duty-free at major airports (that's my prediction, not announced news)

Naturally, no one in the CIA has been arrested for conspiracy to
supply cocaine.
No one in the USA military has been arrested for 'turning a blind eye'
to the presence of poppy fields in Afghanistan.

be happy

lucidity :-)